BREAKING (but kinda old) NEWS! The Crazy Crook Crew has sold. their. house!!!

It was a 60 degree day in January, we were playing at the park with our kiddos and struck up a conversation with neighbors we'd never spoken to before (they're not outside much:).  We noticed their house was for sale and just asked how things were going.  They said they were having showings just about every day and told us the realtor they were working with had just sold a home in our neighborhood in less than 30 days, and they were really excited about working with her.  Well, long story short..she ended up selling their house in less than 30 days too.  And then we called her...on a whim...not even planning on listing...but couldn't help ourselves.  We wanted in on some sweet 30 day action.  Have I mentioned we've listed three times already?  Starting back in 2010...then in 2011...then in 2012.  We never left it on the market for more than our 6 month contract.  It was discouraging...we didn't get much interest, we didn't get many showings, and the feedback was always...blah.  But here we were...February 2013...meeting a new realtor.  It was way spontaneous.  I loved her instantly...of course.  The next week...staging.  The next week...photography...a professional real estate photographer.  This was all new to us...so serious.  The next week we were listed.  In those three weeks, we had this overwhelming feeling that it was going to be different this time...we were so filled with hope.  And we did something we had never done before.  We started looking at houses.
Okay...back to the listing...the very day we went on the market, we had a showing scheduled.  What?!  Scheduled for the next day at 7:00 pm.  However...that showing never happened.  We had a call from our realtor around 3:00 that day and we had an offer...an OFFER.  No one had even seen our house...aside from online.  Okay back to the offer...the OFFER.  It was a full price cash offer.  Yes, you read that right.  Our realtor has been in the business for 15 years and she said she has never seen a full price cash offer made within 24 hours of listing a house.  We were freaking out...trying to believe this was real...but it was really so unbelievable.  We couldn't wrap our minds around it.  It seemed too good to be true.  But in my conversation with God following my conversation with our realtor, I felt guilty for feeling doubt.  I felt like I was shortchanging an amazing God who can do amazing things.  So I recanted the doubt and let the joy take over.  I sang and danced and sang and danced.  I was in the middle of preschool with my four year old when our realtor called so he was the first to hear the news.  I said "Someone is buying our house!  We're going to move!"  And he said "but it's too heavy mama."  Love. That. Child.  The next to hear was the hubbers...and although he was excited, he too was tempted to be a doubting devin.  After trying for so long...this really was unbelievable...unbelievably COOL!
So in his offer, our buyer gave us 30 days and then he would get the keys at closing.  30 days is not very much time when you have no idea where you are going to live.  So our realtor talked to him and he also said he would rent our home back to us if needed.  Seriously.  Thank you Jesus!  Cause although we had the option of splitting our family up between various member of our life group...this was great news:)
To sum up the awesomeness of this situation...our house sold within 24 hours of listing...crazy.  We had a full price cash offer which eliminates a lot of financing fees...super rad.  We didn't have to have a single showing...YAY!  With three small children and a house that is impossible to keep clean, showings were a huge source of anxiety for me.  Our buyer is going to let us rent from him while we search for our new home...SO helpful!  Oh...AND this move is coming at the perfect time.  In hindsight, we are so glad it didn't come in 2010, or 11, or 12:)  Our oldest will be going to kindergarten in the fall and now we're going to move in the direction of the school we want our children in...a great time to transition.
This is really happening.  We're really going to leave this teeny little love filled house that has held so many of our beautiful memories.  God has really blessed this crazy family...and I can't wait to bless Him back with the perfect home I know He has planned for us.  My God is good people!

In His amazing love,
Crazy Mama Crook

Human encounters...

Dinner time on a cruise ship...very interesting...people are interesting.  Cruises are SO diverse...like in every sense.  And at dinner time we experienced alot of diversity..,some of it was wonderful, some not so wonderful.  Some dinners were spent observing and some were spent investing.  I would call myself a people person...but some people...well I'll just let you read;)
Dinner night #1...we were placed at a tiny table in between two other tiny tables, approximately 6 inches away from each other.  The night could be summed up with one word "awkward"... no one broke the ice.  We did not converse with the other tables, yet we could all hear each other's conversations...awkward.  Night #2...we were seated at one large table, again, between two other couples.  I think it helped that we sat at the same big table and not at separate little tables that weren't really separate.  Todd from Michigan broke the ice with a good old "well this is awkward", which was good enough for me to get chatty:)  We talked about this and that and I told them the story about the birth certificates and getting on the ship which inspired Todd and his wife to ask if we were considering adoption (remember the part about how my friend from DCS saved the day?).  So you know his question opened the door for me to tell our story which opened the door for them to tell their story.  Five years ago, they adopted a 7 year old out of the foster care system.  They went on about the blessings and the struggles and we understood each other.  We all love Jesus and adoption...and a friendship was formed on the ship 'Destiny'.  I forget their last name, but I wish I could find them on facebook and be friends forever:)  It was a lovely evening...I liked that table.  Night #3...another tiny table in between tiny tables...why do we always have to be in the middle?  This dinner was rough:(  We sat beside a perplexing couple...the man was probably in his 50's and rather large.  The girl was 20 something and her dress was not covering much.  One would assume she was his daughter, but she was very, VERY rude to him...belittling him in a voice that screamed 'I want everyone to hear how I talk to him'.  She treated the waiter the same way.  She spoke demeaningly, like they were less than her.  I literally felt sick to my stomach...and as I get older, I find it harder to bite my tongue, but I did and I prayed for her three times throughout my dinner.  We left without ordering dessert or even finishing our food.  We couldn't sit there any longer.  I smiled at our waiter on our way out, trying to communicate with my eyes that he was fabulous and that girl is a jerk...I think he may have read me right;)  Night #4...another big table...again in the middle,  This time we were between a family of four from Finland and a couple from Ireland.  The Finnish family was made of 4 beautiful blonde people...the two little girls could have stepped straight out of a magazine:)  They were also very nice.  The Irish couple had been married for over 50 years, they were a lovely couple...full of stories, advice, and encouragement... lovers of Jesus and loved to talk about Him.  Kath (that's what her husband called her) felt like my mamaw.  She touched my arm every time she spoke to me and the way she spoke (apart from the accent) reminded me alot of my mamaw.  They loved looking at pictures of our kids (yes, they're always with me and ready to make an appearance) and telling us stories of their children and grandchildren. We soaked in their words and traded addresses before dinner was through...they may not be on facebook, but they'll be our forever friends the old fashioned way.  I adored the evening we had with them.  That was our last dinner and it ended on a high note.
Overall we had a lovely time.  It was a great way to celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss and how incredibly in love we are.  I'm thankful we made it on board and made it back home.  And I think it may be another 10 years before we leave our kids again...just saying:)
~One very crazy cruisin mama Crook

Wait...you need proof of citizenship for a cruise?

So if you read my blog yesterday then you know that this trip was hard for us.  If we could have went back in time to change things, we would have never booked the cruise.  And despite my scary sad visions and anxiety over leaving sick kiddos, we did it.  We left.  We arrived in Miami around 12:30 on Thursday afternoon.  Right away we found a driver, actually he found us, and we got in his giant, somewhat scary white van (I have a fear of giant white vans but this one had windows so I got in) and made our way to the cruise ship.  He dropped us off and we headed over to the luggage guy who asked for our passports.  We didn't brings ours...they were expired and passports were not required for this particular cruise.  He then asked for our birth certificates.  What?  We don't have those either.  My visual wrath was turned directly to my other half whom I had asked at least THREE times if we needed our birth certificates...including right before we walked out the door on d-day.  I am a detail person, he is not, this part of the trip was his baby.  That's all I'm saying.  The luggage guy was less than kind about our response and sent us to stand in a long line with our bags to talk to another friendly lady.  I was in disbelief...this couldn't be happening...or perhaps my vision was legit and God was doing everything in His power to keep us off that boat.  Did I mention our ship was named "Destiny"?  So many emotions...so much stress.  One lady lead us to another, then another, and another...we ended up sitting in an area with several other people who were not yet grown ups either, or who didn't speak English (everyone but us).  They told us we could get a copy of our birth certificates faxed to Carnival, or even have someone take a picture of them and text it to us which we would e-mail to Carnival.  Okay...there's hope.  I called my beloved sister who was home with our three crazies.  I told her to look in our safe box...she couldn't find them, a black folder full of adoption ppwk, nope, a bag in the closet full of adoption ppwk, nope, I was getting ready to send her to the next possible location when the sound of my sick children crying in the background forced me off the phone.  I told her to take care of them and I'd call her back.  Next option...JT and I both called our moms.  My mom wasn't home...40 minutes away from home actually, but she had a copy and was going to rush home to get it.  JT's mom was at work and she didn't think she still had one.  Okay...at this point I was praying for another type of vision...one where I could see exactly where those birth certificates were...I was going crazy.  What else, what else...I told JT to call our adoption agency and I would call our county Department of Child Services and see if either of those places had copies.  I wasn't sure but thought maybe we had to have them when we went through the adoption process or when we became licensed foster parents.  The adoption agency was no help...but my amazing friend at DCS was on it.  I'll never forget her words "yeah, you had to have those.  Let me grab your file and I'll fax it right away".  And that's exactly what she did.  There you have it, we were a 'go'.  We had decided against our anxiety and fears to go on this trip, flew to Miami, and we were getting on the ship after a dramatic 2 hours of limbo.  Some of our other friends sitting in the 'we forgot our proof of citizenship' area were not so lucky and I was sad for them.  I guess it happens every cruise...some excited vacationers make this mistake and are very disappointed.

But we were on our way...out to sea...on a ship named Destiny.

We had to turn around two hours into the cruise and head back to Miami because one of the singer/dancers was seriously ill and needed what they called "stateside care".  So our 1st port in Key West was canceled due to our delay and a shortage on time. Oh well...no worries from these two Crooks, we were just happy to be on the cruise:)  I've got more to tell but my blogging time has expired...we really did have a good time.  So glad my husband is a rational man and he didn't let my worrisome weirdness thwart our plans to celebrate a decade of wedded bliss!  To be continued...

~A Cruisin Mama Crook

Crying over a Cruise...

This Friday, January 11th, we'll be celebrating ten years of marital bliss.  Ten years of doing this crazy life with my best friend...my teammate...my better, more grounded half:)  This past June, we decided we were going to do something big to celebrate and we booked a cruise.  It seemed like a great idea at the time...no worries, only anticipation.  However...the closer we got to departure, the more anxious I became.  I've never been away from the kids for more than one night...I eat, sleep, and breathe them.  They are my every day and they make my every day.  I mean seriously...scroll up and look at those three faces again.  And the closer we got to our four days of freedom and relaxation, the more nervous/stressed/overwhelmed I became.  So many thoughts ran through my head...you wouldn't believe most of them...because I'm nuts.  For example, I sat on my couch one evening a week prior to our trip and imagined that JT and I were going to die on our cruise...leave this earth and be with Lord.  It didn't stop there...my imagination then took me to our funerals, our lives were celebrated together and our families had to decide whether or not to take our children.  They decided that the kids should see their parents one last time and in my "daymare", our youngest, Rowan, was being carried by his aunt to say goodbye to us.  He was screaming and crying and reaching for my lifeless body and my sister was trying her best to calm him and I could literally hear his voice screaming "mommy, daddy, mommy, Nooooooo!"  So as these thoughts/visions are running through my mind, and tears are streaming down my cheeks, I tell my husband that I don't think we should go.  I explain a little of my "vision" to him and he just stares at me...blankly...with a certain look I've received alot over the last decade.  And my worries are not taken seriously...not even for a second.  Easy for him...he didn't see what I saw...but whatever.  My stress level increased and decreased quite a bit leading up to what I'll call "d-day".  I'd talk to a friend who'd encourage me and talk sense into me...remind me how important my husband is and how good this uninterrupted time together will be for us.  Then a certain 5 year old got so constipated she had a fever and a certain 2 year old got the all too familiar ear infection.  They were fussy and clingy and we were leaving the next day...really?  The night before we left, we were sitting at the dining table adding up the math...our plane tickets and the cost of the cruise...how much we would be throwing away if we just stayed home.  And this was not just me...my husband is the numbers guy and he's the one who started adding it up.  The thought of leaving our sick children was not sitting well with him at all.  Now...I must tell you, we were leaving them with their favorite aunt and she was coming to OUR house.  So daily life was going to be basically the same for them and we had faith in her...we've seen the way she loves and cares for them.  She rocks.  That being said, I also love and care about her and thinking of leaving her with sick Crook kids for 5 days did not help with my anxiety.  But she came...ready and excited...referring to her time at our house as an "adventure".  And there was a part of us that was still excited by the idea of our trip.  Those two things combined with the $ already invested...inspired us to walk out the door.  Mind you, we spent the 1st leg of our trip talking about how excited we'll be when we get back home and feel their little arms around our necks.  But we left just the same...we did it.  There was no turning back.  Or was there?  You'll have to find that out later.  Why are we in our 30's and still not grown ups?  That's how it felt anyway.  I cannot believe we did what we did...or should I say, didn't do.  I'll get into that part of the story tomorrow.  It's been too long since I've written...

One Very

~Crazy Mama Crook

My kids? Oh...no no no...MY kids don't do that...

Oh my word...potty training...little boys...naked...nakedness...nakey.  My daughter was easy.  I was not prepared for boyness, and all that word entails when toilet training.  My three year old was trained last winter...a month before his third birthday and he really wasn't that hard.  We did the naked thing and it worked like a charm.  I was planning on a repeat with our two year old...I was going to start this winter and have him done by his third birthday in February.  However...he had other plans.  About two weeks ago, he just started using the potty.  Easy as that.  Taking off his diaper, opening the bathroom door and doing his business.  Skipped the baby potty, the naked training, the gummy rewards, the sticker chart, all of it.  It was sooooooo weird and I wasn't sure how to feel...I was part happy because it was so easy and part sad because this wasn't my plan and my "baby" wasn't a baby anymore.  Anyway...that "not sure how to feel" thing didn't last long because small frustrations began taking over my days.  Potty training yourself at 2 years is great and all but when your maturity doesn't match up with your potty abilities, things can get a little crazy.  For instance...the kid won't leave his pants on, his undies on, he likes to be all natural and he doesn't care who sees it.  Now for a normal child this would be an easy fix and mom would simply force him to put his pants on...however...my two year old is a manchild and I physically cannot make him put his pants on.  Ugh.  He still LOVES to play with toilet paper...whether that means unrolling the entire roll all over the bathroom or putting as much in the toilet as possible...he loves it.  He loves flushing the toilet over and over and over and sticking his head as far down into it as he can and yelling "Mommy wook a waterfaw!  Bye bye water!"  He likes to "wash" his hands forever and press his hand tightly against the faucet so water sprays the entire bathroom.  He's literally been peeing like 27 times a day and I can't turn my back for a second without a mess to clean up.  That being said, I made the executive decision to put a safety knob on the bathroom door.  It's an inconvenience for the older two but it's oh so much more convenient for this mama.  He has to tell me when he needs to go and then his potty party is 100% supervised:)
This evening I was working on dinner (daddy wasn't home) and my two year old unlocked the door and walked out into our fenced in yard.  I stopped what I was doing to follow him out and I found him right outside the door, pants down, peeing in the grass.  My energy was depleted for the day and I just stood behind him patiently waiting so I could take him back inside.  As I watched the steady stream spraying into the yard, I heard "Hey Sam!  How are you?"  And there she was...my sweet neighbor...standing at our 4 foot fence with her elderly parents.  I did the only thing I could do "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, he just ran out here and started peeing, I am so sorry, how embarrassing."  She said there was no need to apologize and her mom tried to make me feel better by telling me that people let their dogs poop and pee everywhere without cleaning it up.  She gets an A for effort, but seriously.  After I pulled his pants up (yay me), I put him on my hip and walked over to conversate.  I was going to say whatever I could to let them know this is not normal and I am not a weirdo mom.  I explained that I had a safety knob on the bathroom door and he must have gotten frustrated and walked outside to go...and I told them about all of his new bathroom related "hobbies".  They were so sweet...told me not to apologize and then talked about how cute he is and how big he's gotten.  And then...just as the embarrassment was fading...my neighbor says "Hey! There's Bubby!"  And there he was...my three year old...in all his glory...pants down, peeing in the grass.  Mortified, I ran over and got my free loving boys inside as quickly as possible... yelling another apology out the door before I shut it behind the tinkle twins.  This is my life.  This is my real life.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.
~What?!
Crazy Mama Crook

A blast from the past:)

Well look at that...I just turned 30.  I have no idea how that happened.  Two minutes ago I was in 1st grade listening to Mrs. Burkes explain the art of phonics while I replayed yesterday's episode of Punky Brewster through my mind and contemplating how I might become more like her...Punky Brewster that is:)  30 doesn't scare me...tis just a number.  But it did get me thinking...considering the three decades that together have created this Crazy Mama Crook.
Zero to ten...hmmm.  I remember being crazy and loving my spot at the center of attention...not much has changed there:)  I remember preschool...my favorite teacher Ms. Joe and my red headed best friend Anna who liked to eat her scabs...a discovery I made during a sleepover.  Had I known prior, I may have picked a different best friend...but probably not:)  I remember kindergarten...I remember talking while Mrs. Luken was talking (a common occurrence), and getting sent to stand in a corner behind where she was teaching.  Bad move on her part.  As she was turned toward the class, I made a face behind her that looked a little something like a big antlered moose with a crazy tongue, and my 5 year old peers were highly entertained.  My crime was discovered and I was promptly removed to the hallway where Mrs. Blaydes (a feared 1st grade teacher) was obliged to witness my one and only school spanking.  Yep...I got a woopin in KINDERGARTEN.  Unbelievable:)  Or maybe a little believable.
In 2nd grade, I remember falling down at recess.  It was a nasty fall, I was wearing a dress with tights and I skinned my cute little knee.  Once we were back in class, I asked to go to the bathroom where I sat on the little kid size potty and tried to peel the tights off my knee where the dried blood had super glued them:(  Poor little me.  You must note that this was back in the day when we had little one toilet bathrooms in our classes.  During my minor surgical procedure, the alarm (tornado season) sounded and my entire 2nd grade class calmly, strategically, entered into their "safe zone".  The class bathroom.  No, I hadn't locked the door.  And this series of events lead to the most embarrassing moment of my life...to date.  Can you believe they stayed in there?  They all saw me, teacher included, sitting there on the porcelain and they stayed!  Cramped, circled around the potty princess, every one of them giggling little 7 year old giggles.  And it was a drill!  There was NO tornado coming.  My self respect and dignity was lost at age 7.  And that was that.  The teacher scolded me while I sat exposed to my classmates.  She said I was taking too long and shouldn't have been in there.  Then I believe she giggled as well.  I could go on and on with childhood stories, but I'll spare you.
Aside from that nightmare, my kindergarten rebellion, and the shocking discovery that my best friend was part cannibal...my 1st decade was a breeze.  I was living life in the fast lane.  I played outside just about every day and enjoyed the wildlife that came with country living.  I loved frogs...obsessed over them.  Held them, kissed them, carried them everywhere, and played with them like most girls play with dolls.  I was a playful, rotten, busy, dirty, funny, weird kid.  My mom kept my hair in a chili bowl cut...I think mainly because I liked to chew on it and keeping it nice wasn't on my list of priorities.  Thanks mom:)

Ten to twenty...I think this decade took forever.  I wanted to be big.  I wanted to be cool.  I wanted to be pretty.  I wanted to be in high school, get my drivers license, graduate, go to college.  I wanted time to go faster.  Middle school was weird and high school was worse.  I must say I didn't super love those years.  There were some highlights for sure...but a lot of drama and insecurity overshadowed them.  I'll save those sob stories for another day.  I met my soul mate at 17 and you already know how that story goes;)  Things got better after high school...college was good and marriage was great:)

Twenty to thirty...WHAT a transformation.  My twenties began with significant importance placed on the size of the rock on my left hand.  Twenty brought me the end of a college career and a forever union with the love of my life.  Twenty-nine brought me a forever family of 5 and the peace that comes with knowing I now have four loves of my life and they're mine...God gave them to me.  In between twenty and thirty, God showed me where my real treasure lies.  He ignited a passion within my soul that's hard to describe and through it, He created something beautiful.  There were definitely mountains and valleys throughout this past decade...He had to break me to remake me.  And that story has been told.  But it all lead me to here...30.  I love where I find myself and I can't wait to see where God takes me from here.  One thing I know for sure...the next decade is going to fly by.  I feel like I blinked at twenty and woke up thirty.  And now that the kiddos are getting big, and school is right around the corner, I know life only gets crazier, busier, and the days go faster.  We shall see:)  For now, I want to relish in these days and live the life out of them.  Our home overflows with laughter and love (literally) and I want for nothing.  Thirty, flirty, and fabulous baby!

In His amazing love,
Crazy Mama Crook

How about a Happily Ever After?

So...here's the deal.  My God, my hubs, and I have created our family through the miracle of adoption.  And I LOVE adoption...I mean LOVE adoption.  It's my heart...it's my God's heart.  And people love to talk to me about it...people close to me and people I hardly know...it's kind of a hot topic I believe.  But more often than not, the adoption stories I hear are negative, sad, unhappily ever afters.  I could go on and on with specific stories I've heard...but they're basically just stories of broken hearted moms and dads whose children grow to resent and defy them and use adoption as their angle.  And for every story I hear, I try to remind myself of a similar story where adoption is not involved...because in real life, children sometimes break their parents' hearts, adopted or not.  But anyway, I'm sure there are lots of happily ever afters, but those stories seem to be rare.  When I do hear them, I get all warm and fuzzy inside and my joy level increases substantially.  I guess either way...even if I did hear positive stories all the time, I think I'd still have the same fears I have now.
The other day, I opened the door to our laundry room...not knowing my daughter was on the other side putting on her shoes.  The door hit her in the back and she said "hey...watch it lady" with a smile on her face.  I said "hey...you don't talk to your mother like that" with a smile on my face.  She replied with the following words..."You're not my mother".  Those words literally took my breath away, I froze, my heart sank.  And just before the tears made their appearance, she followed her "You're not my mother" with "You're my mommy, silly".  And then the tears came anyway.

My heart was rescued by her pure, loving, sweetness.  I am her mommy.  Not her mother.  And I won't make that mistake again.  The truth is my daughter loves me like any daughter loves her mommy.  She watches me, learns from me, she models so much of what she sees from me.  She tells me I "smell gorgeous",  she says my "face is precious" (she loves using strong adjectives).  She tells me she's going to be just like me.  She hates it when I'm disappointed in her, she's always plotting new ways to make me proud.  She wants my attention, she wants my cuddle time.  She never lets a meal go by without saying "thank you for my dinner mommy" (or lunch or breakfast)...even if she just has a bowl of cereal.  She loves making me happy and she succeeds every day.  She's a gift and I simply adore her.  She's not perfect, neither am I.  But we're perfectly mother mommy and daughter.  Thank you Jesus.    

 Someday, during an argument in her teen years, she might pull out the "real mom" card.  And I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.  But the truth...the truth is I'm as real as they get.  And although I'm extremely secure in that truth, those words will would (if they are spoken) still cut deep into the heart of this mama.  But maybe I can put that fear to rest for a while...because in the here and now...I'm just her mommy, NOT her mother.  And I think that's the way I like it.

Love,
      Crazy Mama Crook